1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of optical data storage and retrieval. More particularly it relates to optical storage and retrieval of information to control a voice or sound synthesizer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The optical storage of information for controlling a voice or sound synthesizer is well known. Some systems in the related art scan alphabetic characters and then pronounce them by resurrecting bits of sounds that correspond to those alphabetic characters. More recent systems employ an optical wand to read conventional bar codes and control the synthesizer with information encoded in the bar coded material. While suited for their intended purposes, these systems do not provide a cheap and convenient way of getting lots of data into a voice synthesizer system quickly. Current voice and sound synthesizers require a high data input rate in order to produce a continuous output.
Games, advertisements and other applications which employ a voice or sound synthesizer have a need for relatively large amounts of data to be stored in relatively compact form. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved optical data storage and retrieval system which may be employed to control a voice or sound synthesizer.